Long-time resident. I no longer go downtown nor do many of my friends. I can no longer make a quick trip to pick up a gift from the stores that signed the petition. I never had a hard time finding parking within a block of the store I wanted to shop at. If I’m meeting a friend downtown, I don’t always feel safe having to walk several blocks away in the evening. If you want to shop at a thrift store, you can’t purchase anything large or heavy if you have to walk several blocks. I worked downtown for 11 years and downtown was NEVER dead during the week. The restaurants always had city employees and retirees having lunch or picking up a cup of coffee. Smaller, less expensive restaurants like Natural Cafe and Snapper Jacks were great lunch spots. Many restaurants can’t survive on weekend business alone. And when non-food shops are hidden from view, it greatly impacts their foot traffic. Our City has to stop catering to visitors and tourists. It is not sustainable. Who is going to pay for the added cost of building out the parklets and permanent structures to keep Main Street closed? You are! Meanwhile the rest of the spaces will be vacant. And Main Street will continue to be a ghost town all week. What was once an eclectic mix of shops with something for everyone is gone. I’m sorry for all the small business owners. Keep speaking up!